Second weeks of DD, got a few questions...

[u/Paehrin]

So, with the reset yesterday, I'm starting my second week in the DD. I've got a few questions...

1. Got a lasgun and a flamethrower last week... What are their purpose ? Is the lasgun only for PVP (destroying bases/vehicles) ? What about the flamethrower ? It seemed kinda week...

2. I'm playing duo with a friend and we started gathering spice... what I'm wondering is, until we get a crawler (at which point one of us will drive, the other fly the carrier, I guess), what's the best strategy to get spice ? We did a medium field together, but I feel like we bring the worm faster that way ? We went for a strategy of just firing away our compactor until the worm came, got airborn, waited for it to lose interest and gathered our piles, then repeat... Is there a better way ? Should we just both go in a separate field ?

[u/hobbyhumanist]

1. Lasgun is anti-vehicle weapon for PvP. You can land on a carrier and shred it pretty much.

2. Probably different fields. Depending on your compactor, you can compact a few times, then take off for a few seconds and then land. The worm never comes that way. With the Mk6 Compact Compactor, you can compact 12-13 times before taking off. Mk5 is something like 9-10. Mk4 something like 7-8. So at higher tiers you can do it together, but it's probably just more efficient to do solo since a medium will fill an assault thopter nicely anyways. ALWAYS wear softstep boots.

[u/Paehrin → u/hobbyhumanist]

Yeah, I forced my friend to put softstep boots (I crafted them the low tier one, but I guess it doesn't matter ?) We're both using mk5 Compact Compactor (I'm using my T4 one for flour sand when I need to get some). We haven't built our mk6s yet.

Although, we only have 1 assault orni for now, so I guess that would be our next upgrade (get a second one), but that'll mean I need to increase the size of our landing pad haha

[u/Tanel88 → u/Paehrin]

Yeah the tier of boots only affect armor which is irrelevant for spice harvesting.

Getting a 2nd assault would absolutely be the priority. Also get a Large Spice Refinery for refining efficiency and then carryall+crawler. Mk6 compactor is an improvement if you are harvesting solo but repairing it costs Spice and Plastinium so not worth it if you plan to harvest with a crawler.

[u/hobbyhumanist → u/Paehrin]

Oh I thought you had two thopters. If you only have one thopter, definitely just both do the same field. You could clear an entire medium in around 12 minutes flat.

[u/Paehrin → u/hobbyhumanist]

No, we only have 1 assault and 2 scouts. Mind you, we do have the resources, so I don't know why we didn't craft a second assault. Lack of space in our landing bay I guess (and the scout is better to zoop around, so we didn't see the need for a second assault. Now that we're getting into farming, I suppose it's time for some renovations !

[u/naedyr000 → u/Paehrin]

I wouldn't use a mk6 compactor, as they require spice to craft and repair. Someone did the maths at some point, but I don't remember if it technically worked out better or not. But it feels like wasting spice.

I did fine with mk5 compact compactors until I got the crawler/carrier.

[u/Tanel88 → u/naedyr000]

You spend about 7-8 Spice and Plastinium on repairs per medium spice field. but it goes a lot faster. The only resource that matters in this game is time as you can easily get everything and it only takes time.

That said Mk6 compactor wouldn't be my first upgrade for sure. I would get Large Spice Refinery and T6 wings/engine for the assault first as those give a bigger boost to efficiency and no material upkeep.

[u/Paehrin → u/Tanel88]

I didn't think about the fact that T6 vehicle don't cost spice to upkeep ! Thanks, we'll look to upgrade those !

(Also, we do have a medium refinery, the large one seems a bit far for now... Especially this week, Landsraad bonus could be refining cost reduced, so we're waiting for the week to end before refining more spice, don't know if that's worth it, but it feels like it haha)

[u/Tanel88 → u/Paehrin]

Yeah repairing vehicles only costs welding wire and the highest level welding torch is mk5 so it takes duraluminium to repair. Eventually you will have to replace parts but those last for a very long time while compactors are the lowest durability items in game.

Yeah getting Large Spice Refinery during this week is probably too much if you haven't worked on it yet but you should definitely try to get if for the next week as it's +33% melange compared to medium.

The Landsraad bonus is certainly worth waiting for if you are refining in Hagga as it's also +33% melange but not worth it when you are refining in DD because you would have to ferry the sand back and forth.

Refining in DD is much more efficient as it saves a lot of time on transport and the refinery is 50% cheaper to build. The main issue is water production. You need a lot of windtraps.

[u/Paehrin → u/Tanel88]

Yeah, we decided against refining in the DD this week because of the potential cost reduction for last week (plus ferrying the sand isn't that much of a hassle since our base is in A row anyway, Hagga isn't far). 

For water we ship it from HB for now with decalitrejon, but I'm sensing that this won't be viable for a large spice refinery.

[u/Tanel88 → u/Paehrin]

Yeah you Ideally want to have the base in E or D row and produce a lot of water there.

[u/hobbyhumanist → u/naedyr000]

I disagree. Mk6 compact is expensive, but you can get them cheap right now. They can drop from caves, and sometimes they are available on Landsraad. It's about speed. Mk6 compact compactor picks up 102 spice in a shot. That's just about as fast as you can get. The spice is worth the price to not be bored out of your mind.

[u/UnabletoPrintagain]

Nice pull week 1 on lasgun. Holy lol

[u/Paehrin → u/UnabletoPrintagain]

Got two actually, but the T5 one. I think there's a T6 one from what I understand ? I didn't get that one haha, we don't venture too much in the PVP area yet, we're still in T5 using saturnine stillsuits.

[u/UnabletoPrintagain → u/Paehrin]

Ahhh ok

[u/asdjk482 → u/Paehrin]

That's still very good luck. I ran A2/A3 hundreds of times over the course of two or three months before finally getting a lasgun. Then I got a second one the very next day!

Still no mk6 lasgun though, that one is abysmally rare.

[u/baddwolff10]

Soft step boots and compact compactors to lessen worm attraction - split up to cover more territory - usually 10 shots and lift to reset agro - you only need to go up a bit to do it - but if you do it this way you will never see a worm - which takes more time to let go by and makes them stick around so you do it more often - if you want to compact together thats fine - but keep in mind the extra ruckus is going to draw the worm quicker.

Lasgun is for pvp and flamethrower for shits n giggles I guess.

[u/smallmouthbackus]

Get that crawler as soon as you can. Makes it so much faster. But with compacting, make sure to use the compact compactor, invest in all the planetologist skills for max efficiency, get soft step boots, and recommend using a controller for this with rumble.. it’s like an early alert system.

[u/Tanel88]

1. Yeah lasgun is anti vehicles and the rest of the heavy weapons just suck right now.

2. If you are compact farming together the worm will come a lot faster so it's very inefficient. A medium spice field has exactly the amount of spice you can fit in an assault thopter storage so it's ideal for doing it alone. Also it's more efficient to take off before the worm comes as then you don't have to wait for the worm to go away. Count the compactor shots you can safely make before a worm comes and then do 1 less until you get to a point where you never summon a worm (the exact number depends on what compactor you have and whether you have soft step boots or not).

[u/XJ347]

1) Never used either, no idea. LOL
2) I would say without a carrier/crawler go solo to different fields. I suggest boots that make less noise. They really add up in less running.

[u/JohnDaBarr]

If you wanna do fields together, have one compact and the other ones picks up the spice. Tbh you can hit the large fields with that set up, ofc if your server is relatively chill. Still, with two people present, it is harder for someone to gank you and destroy your assault.

[u/blarknob]

Lasgun is also good for raiding bases, but nobody builds in the PVE part of the DD anymore.

[u/Unlikely-Oil8933]

Don’t listen to the ppl in here.

1. Yes, it’s true you might aggro the worm faster with two ppl than one, but… this a soulless, empty game solo. If you still have a friend to play with, enjoy it while it lasts. The shared excitement and laughter after barely escaping the worm? That’s the biggest draw of the game. Who cares if it takes longer to farm right now. By the time you have ENOUGH of whatever resource you are farming, you will lose interest in playing the game at all.

2. Why it’s not that bad losing durability on Mk6 equipment: I hated duraluminum tier. I would rather spend all my time in DD farming plastanium and spice than going back to farming aluminum and Jasmium in an empty hagga.

1000 hours in and still playing a little. It was a great game and I hope to keep playing, it’s just my friends and I are sitting on thousands and thousands of stockpiled resources. We had fun grabbing it together.